Most of my friends and colleagues at UNC Charlotte know that I am currently serving as the Interim Chair of the University’s Department of Theatre. For me, one of the pleasures of serving in this position is getting to know the faculty members in the department and learning about their various projects and activities. One such faculty member is David Janowiak. David’s latest project is launching the Carolina New Works Play Festival. Working together with Three Bone Theatre, David organized this festival to showcase new plays by playwrights from North and South Carolina. In response to my request for more information about this festival, he provided me with the following press release written by Meg Whalen:
Inaugural Carolina New Works Play Festival presents winning works in July. The festival is a collaboration between the Department of Theatre and Three Bone Theatre.
Three highschoolers on the last day of senior year. A gay man returning to his small Southern hometown and aging parents. Ambitious Los Angeles creatives tempted by ChatGPT.
These characters will breathe their first when the Carolina New Works Play Festival presents its inaugural cohort of plays in two sets of public staged readings July 24-26 and July 31-Aug. 2.
Founded by the UNC Charlotte Department of Theatre and Three Bone Theatre, the Carolina New Works Play Festival showcases plays from North and South Carolina playwrights, selected through a rigorous juried process. This year’s winning plays are “TRE,” by T.J. Lewis; “How I Got Forgotten,” by Glenn Rawls; and “You Can’t Smoke in Burbank,” by Skylar Schock.
In “TRE,” Tay, Rey and Bree find themselves on the last day of senior year, fumbling through life and contemplating what comes next. What are they doing with their lives? Where should they go to college? Who do they want to be as grown-ups? And why do they keep kissing each other?
In “How I Got Forgotten,” a newly single gay man returns to his small Southern hometown after his mother’s heart attack. As he sees his mother slip toward dementia, he realizes she has been covering for his father, a retired history professor who is in the grips of Alzheimer’s.
“You Can’t Smoke in Burbank” takes on the art versus AI dilemma, as three Los Angeles-based creatives use ChatGPT to finish an assignment. That decision thrusts them into unexpected circumstances that challenge their ideas about success, entertainment and making something matter.
Following two weeks of rehearsals with local directors, actors and dramaturgs, each play will receive two professional staged readings: July 24-26 at Rowe Recital Hall on the campus of UNC Charlotte and July 31-Aug. 2 at The Arts Factory on West Trade Street.
After each reading playwrights and artists will host post-show discussions with the audience. Audiences will witness the creative process, and their feedback will become part of the plays’ development.
For more information about the 2026 festival performances, including showtimes, and the guidelines for future play submissions, visit the CNWPF webpage.
I am pleased to report that the following UNC Charlotte students are participating in this year’s festival:
- Lydia Elder: Stage Manager for How I Got Forgotten by Glen Rawls
- Ashlin Heise: Stage Manager for Tre by TJL
- Micah Jordan: Actor–Reynardo in Tre by TJL
- Jordan Goddard: Actor–Skylar in You Can’t Smoke in Burbank (YCSIB) by Skylar Schock
- Anna Bailey: Actor–Student/Waiter in YCSIB by Skylar Schock
- Katherine Macguire: Actor–Taylor Bell/Instructor in YCSIB by Skylar Schock
I congratulate David and the good folks associated with Three Bone Theatre on the launching of the inaugural season of the Carolina New Works Play Festival. I am proud that Storied Charlotte is home to this new festival.